Gordon Campbell on some electorates to watch on Saturday night
On the eve of Election Day, Judith Collins can claim that she has done exactly what she was chosen to do: namely, she looks like […]
Jacinda Ardern
Gordon Campbell on flirting with Act, and on the euthanasia/cannabis measures
Less than convincingly, Judith Collins says that if elected to govern, she would not be enacting any of the austerity measures and welfare cuts advocated […]
Gordon Campbell on last night’s debate, and beyond
It really hasn’t been a good week for Judith Collins to be wheeling out her Little Me impression of Donald Trump, yet the similarities have […]
Gordon Campbell on debates as game-shows, and why mixing politics and religion is a bad idea
Political debates have dominated the week’s campaign cycle, here and elsewhere. Routinely, leaders’ debates ( and polls) are the roadside diners and comfort stops on […]
Gordon Campbell on last night’s leaders debate
Do political debates change voter intentions, and cause voters to switch sides? According to a 2019 Harvard Business School study conducted across 61 elections in […]
Gordon Campbell on the election delay
Hi, team. While the majority of the team of five million has gritted its teeth and obeyed the rules throughout the Covid-19 crisis, a sizeable […]
Gordon Campbell on who really deserves sympathy when stress makes people behave badly
Sex always makes people sit up and pay attention to what‘s on the news bulletins. The political circus aside…. Power (not sex) has really been […]
Gordon Campbell on the double standard that’s bound to dominate Election 2020
Are National really better political managers than Labour, particularly when it comes to running the economy? For many voters – and the business community in […]
Gordon Campbell on why the dice are loaded against women in public life
If they enter public life, women can expect a type of intense (and contradictory) scrutiny that is rarely applied to their male counterparts. If they […]
Gordon Campbell on the likely role of PPPs in Labour’s infrastructural spending
The same argument that Robertson has made for these projects apply equally to why the government should borrow the money to build them itself
Gordon Campbell on the media falling out of love with Jacinda Ardern, and other climate change concerns
The sensible antidote to Jacinda-mania isn’t this anti-Jacinda (middle of the) road rage. Especially since her alleged sins look so trivial, compared to what her peers are up to.
Gordon Campbell on Labour’s mishandling of the alleged sexual assault
The focus of Labour’s alleged sexual assault scandal has now shifted from the party organisation to the Beehive.
Gordon Campbell on the damning Commerce Commission report on the fuel industry
Yesterday’s interim Commerce Commission report on the fuel industry will do nothing to endear the major oil companies to the New Zealand public
Gordon Campbell on the Ihumatao dispute
There is no tidy way forward on the Ihumatao dispute, given that the mana whenua with valid claims to the site are locked in conflict.
Gordon Campbell on the fallacy of political moderation
The belief that it is the moderate middle who will decide the outcome of Election 2020 is a deeply ideological stance.
Gordon Campbell on the Christchurch Call, and Lizzo
The zigzagging nature of the Christchurch Call To Action’s content reflects the genuine tension that exists on this subject.
Gordon Campbell on the government’s timidity on welfare reform
Only six months ago, the jury was still out on whether the Ardern government would enter the history books as a radical force for change, or as mere tinkerers with the status quo…
On Ardern and Macron’s campaign against violent social media content
In the wake of the Christchurch mosque shootings, there is now a strong political appetite for some sort of regulatory action.
Gordon Campbell on scrapping the capital gains tax
With the wisdom of hindsight, the Labour/Greens combo never did have the numbers to get a meaningful capital gains tax (CGT) across the line…
Gordon Campbell on the human rights dimension of Jacinda Ardern’s visit to China
It is also difficult to imagine that even a moral lecture by a New Zealand PM would do much to improve the lot of the persecuted, or make the tyrants mend their ways
Gordon Campbell on why the government shouldn’t run the Christchurch massacre inquiry
Yesterday Jacinda Ardern announced an inquiry into the background to the mosque attacks and into the role played by the SIS, GCSB, Police, Customs, and Immigration.
Gordon Campbell on justice for Kiwi jihadis
Mark Taylor, the Kiwi recruit to ISIS, ultimately put himself in the hands of the Kurdish forces in northern Syria. That was smart of him, and/or lucky.
Gordon Campbell on why Justin Trudeau’s fate matters to New Zealand
The scandal now engulfing Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party is the kind of train wreck that confirms the public’s worst feelings about politicians and their back-room dealings.
Gordon Campbell on the alleged crisis over our relations with China
If New Zealand’s relations with China are ‘deteriorating’ then you still need a microscope to detect the signs.
Gordon Campbell on Ardern, Davos, and the wellbeing schtick
The ‘wellbeing budget’ sounds like a marketing slogan… It’s just as easy to forget that GDP – the common measure of how well an economy is performing – is also a marketing device
Gordon Campbell on Emmanuel Macron’s no good, very bad year
Earlier this year, PM Jacinda Ardern’s harmonious meeting with Emmanuel Macron was deemed to be the most important political coup of her entire trip to Europe.
Gordon Campbell on how Malaysia has exposed our dodgy policies towards China
Mahathir Mohamad has exposed how New Zealand is trying to make a virtue out of sitting on the fence over the South China Sea dispute
Gordon Campbell on why deportation decisions should be transparent
Kicking the problematic cases upstairs for the Minister to operate as some kind of ‘last chance saloon’ is to turn the deportation decision into a lottery.
Gordon Campbell on the fuss and fighting over the PM’s Pacific Forum trip
Dutifully, the Pacific Islands Forum meeting is described each year as the region’s most important gathering of leaders…
Gordon Campbell on the stereotypes about Jacinda Ardern
On Monday, Act MP David Seymour’s depiction of PM Jacinda Ardern as a clueless lightweight was yet another example of the double bind faced by […]